How does lightning occurs

If your hair stands on end or your skin starts to tingle, lightning maybe about to strike. Get down on your hands and knees and keep your head tucked in. Do not lay flat, because it can give lightning a better chance of strike you. How far away can you see lightning and hear thunder? Within those distant thunderstorms, the lightning bolts can be seen as much as miles from us, depending on the height of the bolt, the clarity of the air, and our elevation.

Thunder, in comparison, has a much shorter range of detection - usually less than 15 miles in a quiet rural setting and under 5 miles in a noisy city environment. Why are you less likely to see static electricity in the summer? In the summer, our dew points are much higher due to warm and humid air coming from the Gulf of Mexico and that is why we have humid weather. In the winter, our dew points are much lower due to cold and direr air coming from Canada. The lower the dew point the better it is to create static electricity, so that's why you see it more in the winter.

What is cloud-to-ground lightning? All lightning is dangerous, but cloud-to-ground lightning is the most dangerous type of lightning. Most cloud-to-ground lightning strikes come from the negatively charged bottom of the cloud traveling to the positively charged ground below.

Cloud-to-ground lightning bolts strike the tall objects, like trees and buildings. These lightning strikes can cause fire and property damage. If you're the tallest object, then lighting can strike you. Lightning is the second weather related killed. What is intracloud lightning?

Intracloud lightning is the most common type of lightning. This occurs when there are both positive and negative charges within the same cloud. Usually, the process takes place within the cloud and looks like a bright flash of light which flickers.

What is intercloud lightning? Intercloud lightning is less common. It's when a lightning strike occurs when there are positive and negative charges within different clouds and the strike travels in the air between them. What is forked lightning? Forked lighting appears as jagged lines of light.

They can have several branches. Forked lightning can be seen shooting from the clouds to the ground, from one cloud to another cloud, or from a cloud out into the air.

This lightning can strike up to 10 miles away from a thunderstorm. What is sheet lightning? Sheet lightning appears as flashes of light that seem to light up or illuminate entire clouds. What is heat lightning?

Heat lightning is a term used to describe lightning flashes that are too far away from you to hear the thunder. The reason that it is called heat lightning is that it appears most often on a hot summer day when the sky is clear overhead. What is high-altitude lightning? High-altitude lightning has been given other names such as "red sprites," "green elves," and "blue jets.

You can't see these types of lightning from the ground. What is ribbon lightning? Ribbon lightning is when a bolt of lightning separates due to wind and appears as parallel lightning streaks. What is chain or bead lightning?

Chain or bead lightning is when a lightning bolt is broken into dotted lines while fading. What is ball lightning? Ball lightning is a rare form of lightning. Sort of. It looks for the closest and easiest path to release its charge. Often lightning occurs between clouds or inside a cloud. But the lightning we usually care about most is the lightning that goes from clouds to ground—because that's us! As the storm moves over the ground, the strong negative charge in the cloud attracts positive charges in the ground.

These positive charges move up into the tallest objects like trees, telephone poles, and houses. A "stepped leader" of negative charge descends from the cloud seeking out a path toward the ground. Although this phase of a lightning strike is too rapid for human eyes, this slow-motion video shows it happening.

As the negative charge gets close to the ground, a positive charge, called a streamer, reaches up to meet the negative charge. The channels connect and we see the lightning stroke. We may see several strokes using the same path, giving the lightning bolt a flickering appearance, before the electrical discharge is complete. That's five times hotter than the surface of the Sun! The heated air expands explosively, creating a shockwave as the surrounding air is rapidly compressed.

The air then contracts rapidly as it cools. Is lightning always produced by a thunderstorm? Thunderstorms always have lightning thunder is caused by lightning, and you can't have a thunderstorm without thunder! What causes thunder? Thunder is caused by lightning. The bright light of the lightning flash caused by the return stroke mentioned above represents a great deal of energy. The air that is now heated to such a high temperature had no time to expand, so it is now at a very high pressure.

The high pressure air then expands outward into the surrounding air compressing it and causing a disturbance that propagates in all directions away from the stroke. The disturbance is a shock wave for the first 10 yards, after which it becomes an ordinary sound wave, or thunder.